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Jaguar's Rebrand Sparks Controversy and Agency Review

Six months after Jaguar unveiled its "Copy Nothing" rebrand, the fallout is still unfolding. In early May 2025, Campaign reported that parent company JLR had started a review of its global creative agency account. The account is held by Accenture Song, the agency widely reported to be behind the relaunch. JLR has not linked the review to the rebrand. Here is what Jaguar launched, how people reacted, and what the review does and does not tell us.

What Jaguar launched

On November 19, 2024, Jaguar revealed a new identity built on a design philosophy it calls "Exuberant Modernism". The new wordmark mixes upper- and lower-case letters, the famous leaper was redrawn rather than dropped, and the core palette moved to bright yellow, red and blue.

The launch film ran for about 30 seconds and showed a cast of models of different ages, genders and ethnicities alongside lines such as "live vivid", "delete ordinary" and "copy nothing". It did not show a single car.

Jaguar presented the move as a return to its founder's thinking. "Sir William Lyons, our founder, believed that 'A Jaguar should be a copy of nothing'," said Chief Creative Officer Gerry McGovern. Managing Director Rawdon Glover put it more bluntly: "This is a complete reset."

The car followed two weeks later. On December 2, 2024, at Miami Art Week, Jaguar showed the Type 00 concept in "Miami Pink" and "London Blue". It previews an electric four-door GT that Jaguar said would be revealed in production form in late 2025 and built in the UK, with a projected range of up to 430 miles (EPA).

The backlash

The reaction was immediate. Elon Musk wrote on X: "Do you sell cars?", and Jaguar answered its critics with "All will be revealed."

Glover defended the strategy in an interview with the Financial Times: "We need to re-establish our brand and at a completely different price point so we need to act differently." He said the cast of the film had faced abuse online and that the message had been lost in "a blaze of intolerance". In the week of the Type 00 reveal, he added: "We absolutely don't want to alienate any of our loyal fans."

Sales figures are often used as a scorecard here, but they need context. In November 2024 Jaguar stopped selling new cars to UK customers while it wound down its existing range ahead of relaunching as an electric-only brand. Glover called the pause "a firebreak that will give customers and dealers the chance to reset". So when ACEA figures released in late May 2025 showed just 49 new Jaguars registered across Europe in April, down 97.5% on a year earlier, the number mostly reflects a brand with almost no new cars on sale. It cannot be read as a direct verdict on the rebrand.

The agency review

In early May 2025, Campaign reported that JLR had started a review of its global creative agency account, and the Telegraph followed. The incumbent is Accenture Song, which joined JLR's marketing model in 2021 as Accenture Interactive, working alongside JLR's long-standing agency Spark44.

JLR declined to discuss it: "As a matter of policy JLR does not comment on any supplier arrangements. Accenture Song are currently under contract to the middle of 2026. We have nothing further to say on this matter."

It is worth being precise about what this means. JLR has not said the review is about the rebrand, and its own launch announcement never named an agency. The link between the two has been drawn by commentators, not confirmed by the company.

What brands can take from it

Show the product, or expect people to ask for it. Jaguar launched an identity with no car on screen while its showrooms had nothing new to sell. Critics filled that gap, and Musk's four-word post landed because it asked the obvious question.
A repositioning is a price decision, not just a visual one. Glover's own explanation was about moving Jaguar to "a completely different price point". The identity is the visible part of that bet. The real test is whether the cars can earn that price.
Heritage has to be backed by product. Jaguar used its founder's own "copy of nothing" line to justify breaking with its recent past. A quote can open that argument, but only the car can win it.

Update: what happened next (October 2026)

This article was first published on May 28, 2025. Here is how the story has developed since then:

August 2025: JLR named PB Balaji as its next CEO from November 2025, as Adrian Mardell retired after three years in the role and 35 years with the company. The same week, Donald Trump called the campaign "a stupid, and seriously WOKE advertisement" on Truth Social. JLR said Mardell's retirement had been planned for some time and was unrelated.
December 2025: After a review that ran for about nine months, JLR entered exclusive talks with WPP, which beat Accenture Song and Omnicom in the final round. The account covers all four JLR brands: Range Rover, Defender, Discovery and Jaguar.
March 2026: JLR confirmed that Gerry McGovern would step down as Chief Creative Officer at the end of March to start his own creative consultancy. The company had earlier denied reports that his employment had been terminated.
May 2026: WPP and JLR finalized their partnership, covering creative, media, production, customer experience and strategy.
October 2026: The production car arrived later than the "late 2025" first announced. Jaguar revealed the Type 01, an electric four-door GT, in New York on October 6, 2026. It is expected to cost from around £120,000, with 1,015bhp and a target range of 435 miles (WLTP). First deliveries are planned for summer 2027.

The film started the conversation. Whether Jaguar's reset works will now be decided by the car.

Sources

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